English

On Saturday the 26 of march about 30 people, Taayush and international
activists together with residents of Hirbet Tawane went out to the fields
belonging the the villages Tawane, Mufkara and Haruba that had been poisoned
a few days earlier by Jewish settlers. Sheep belonging to the villagers and
other animals that live in the area, among them deer, had died. On that
morning the shepherds had gone out with their herds to those areas where the
poison had already been removed. Part of those fields are in firing ranges,
access to them is allowed only on Saturdays and Jewish holidays.

We arrived in the fields around 10:00 and started collecting the poison
which had been spread in an area tens of square kilometers wide. This was
going to be very difficult since the poison was small grains of barley
dipped in turquoise colored rat poison, hidden under bushes and rocks,
spread over a large area. Whats more, considering the large quantity of
poison, it was doubtful that it could all be collected.

Almost immediately after our arrival we were joined by the army, the police
and the Maon settlement security coordinators. They didn’t prevent us from
collecting the poison but claimed that the Palestinian shepherds were not
allowed to graze their sheep without advance coordination. The regiment
commander, lt.Col. Itamar ordered three shepherds arrested, two of them were
“held hostage” an hour and a half in an army jeep until the Palestinians
left the firing range. Another shepherd sustained injuries to the face when
he was violently attacked by one of the soldiers. He was then held
handcuffed for another hour. The soldier was photographed and can be clearly
identified. Only when representatives of the civil administration arrived,
at appoximately 11:30, and verified that the pasture area had indeed been
pre-coordinated did the soldiers release those arrested and allow the
shepherds to continue grazing the sheep.

All this to the deep sorrow of Mr.Gedalia, the security coordinator of Maon
who lingered the whole time with the soldiers, vehemently protesting the
army’s toleration of the Palestinians on their own land without prior
coordination or presenting proper documentation of ownership. He forcefully
demanded from the administration officer to verify if all present were
landowners. Gedalia and another security person stayed around during the
whole incident, directing the soldiers, the police and the civil
administrators about the proper procedures of action.

During this time armed members of Maon settlement were seen watching  the
events from some nearby trees. Some of them tried coming near to the
activists and were prevented by the police. However at about 13:20 a group
of settlers, some of them armed, came out of the grove and started
progressing in the direction of Tawane itself (this kind of “patrol” where a
large group of settlers approach the village and threaten the residents
occurred also last Saturday).

The police and army accompanied the settlers on their way to the village.
Taayush activists rushed to prevent the settlers from reaching the village,
but the soldiers then claimed that they had an order that the area was a
closed military zone (which was not supposed to happen on Saturday). The
soldiers tried to force the peace activists back in the direction of the
village, while promising to keep the settlers away. In actuality the
settlers continued on and approached the first house of the village, Jumaa
Rabiya’s house .

As they were moving closer to the village one of the settlers started
running unobtructedly towards the activists. Only after spitting on one did
the soldiers stop him. They came within a distance of 15-20 meters from
Jumaa Rabiya’s house while being accompanied by the army. At this point one
of the activists appealed to the soldiers to prevent the settlers from
entering the village only to win for herself a shower of curses.

Regiment commander Itamar now called on his soldiers to toss the activists
the hell out of there while the settlers were still standing next to the
house singing and cursing both residents and activists. One of the soldiers
kicked an activist, Niv Hachlili, pushed him and a number of soldiers
threatened to hurt him with their rifles. Four other soldiers hit another
activist, Horesh Wald. The whole time the soldiers continued cursing the
activists saying “it’s to bad they didn’t kill you when you were small”.
The confrontation lasted about 20 minutes, during this time the settlers
continued onto Maon. The special patrol unit that was called and the police
stayed near the activists.

Afterwards the activists returned to the fields to continue collecting the
poisoned grain until about 17:30. There still remain large areas that have
not been cleared of the poison. The life threatening danger to the sheep and
wildlife of the area continues.